Category Archives: Uckfield Tile Cleaning

This customer owned a large house in Uckfield, East Grinstead with honed Limestone tiled flooring throughout the whole downstairs, which comprised the living room, dining room and kitchen.

The Limestone floor was in good condition and had been treated to regular professional care, however, the customer wanted the floor to be pristine and I was asked to further refine the appearance of the floor. Limestone is a very tough stone so this is done primarily through the process of burnishing using diamond encrusted pads.

Burnishing Honed Limestone Tiles

I began with the dining room area, first shifting the furniture out of the way to allow space for the burnishing to take place, before bringing in my three main tools: the buffing machine, a set of four diamond burnishing pads, and the wet-vacuum.

To start the process, I attached the red coarse grit pad to the buffer, and then, using a litre of water per square metre as lubrication, I cleaned and stripped away any existing sealer. Since, Limestone is particularly porous, I limited myself to working on nine tiles at a time.

Once I’d removed any excess residue with the wet-vacuum, I changed to the blue medium grit pad, repeated the cleaning process, and again soaked up the soiled residue. Finally, I completed the process once more with the yellow fine grit pad. Once this was completed I buffed the floor with a soft white pad to clean up any dried residue, leaving it ready to be sealed.

Sealing Limestone Tiles

Two days later, once the floor was completely dry, I returned to the property to seal and polish the floor. To begin, I restored the shine to the tiles by applying the last of the four burnishing pads – the green very fine grit.

I then used the three cloth method to apply Tile Doctor Ultra Seal, a solvent-based, impregnating sealer that soaks into the pores of the Limestone to provide durable protection against ingrained dirt. Colour enhancing sealers such as Tile Doctor Colour Grow were available to the customer, but he stated that he was very happy with the current appearance and wanted the more natural look.

After an hour, the floor was ready to be buffered once again with the very fine pad, which I attached to a hand held buffing machine to work around the corners and electrical sockets.

Given the size of the property, this job took me three days – a day spent in each room. The customer was very exact with his requirements, and was very happy with the results, being left with fantastic looking Limestone tiles throughout the entire downstairs of the house.

Let me start by saying this was by far the hardest job I’ve ever done and as you read on you will soon realise why. The customer called me out to quote on a Quarry tiled floor at a house in Danehill that was covered in concrete screed. She said it had always been there and she’s lived there for years always meaning to get it bought back to a state that she could live with. Undaunted by the state of the floor (see photo below) we agreed a price and fixed a date to do the work.

Removing Concrete Screed from Quarry Tiles

For the next two days I spent all my time pouring neat Tile Doctor Grout Clean-up onto small areas and working it in with a metal scraper and wire brush. Once removed the resultant muck was rinsed and extracted using a wet vacuum, laborious work as you can imagine although I was kept entertained by playing the occasional game of fetch with a very keen Collie dog who seemed fascinated by the bloke sitting on his floor all day. After two days of this my hands were throbbing but I could see red quarry tile emerging. The final two hours on the second day were spent making good any areas under the washing machine and fridge and giving the floor a thorough rinse to remove any trace of cleaning product.

Sealing Quarry Tiles

The floor dried off overnight and I came back the third day to seal the tiles making sure that my canine companion had been sent next door first. To seal the floor I used six coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which really brought back the colour in the floor and gave it an amazingly shiny surface.

Once sealed the floors transformation was complete and when the customer returned from work she was utterly speechless. I’d turned what looked like a building site into a stunning tiled floor.

This customer in North Chailey, near Haywards Heath and Uckfield, contacted me asking for her Terracotta tiled kitchen floor to be cleaned and sealed. To quote the customer she said the tiles were “horrendous” and upon inspection it was hard to disagree.

However I thought that most of the floor could be greatly improved but several areas around the washing machine and dishwasher were particularly soiled. Once I spoke of my concerns the customer admitted that both the washing machine and dishwasher had flooded the floor twice and leaked on a regular basis. Washing powder is very caustic and causes permanent damage that cannot be fixed.

Terracotta Tile Cleaning

I stripped off what was left of the previous sealer using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a heavy duty alkaline cleaner/coatings stripper ideal for tiled surfaces. We let the solution dwell on the floor for 10 to 20 minutes before working it into the tiles by hand and deck brush, usually I’d use a rotary buffing machine with a scrubbing pad but it was quite a narrow kitchen. Once I’d washed it down and sucked up any excess water with the wet-vax I left it for two days to dry.

Terracotta Tile Sealing

I returned 48 hours later and sealed the Terracotta tiles using multiple coats of Tile Doctor Seal and Go which is a water based (no smell) which is ideal for Terracotta. Sealers can take some time to apply as you have to wait for the first coat to dry before applying the next, fortunately however we were blessed by a warm windy day which blew through the kitchen and increased the drying time. You can see from the pictures on this page the amazing transformation that was achieved. Whilst I was waiting for the sealer to dry I noticed their patio was in need of attention so I gave that a blast from my industrial pressure washer.

Reviews

Customer Testimonials

Mick did a great job cleaning and restoring our old terracotta tiled kitchen floor. It looks as good as new. Very professional job.By Fiona P, Piltdown

Excellent service – I’d highly recommend Mick. He did a great job on improving the look of our tiles and gave us some very helpful aftercare advice.By Paloma A, Rye

A really good finish on our very old and damaged tiles. Thank youBy Sarah , Hassocks

Very efficient service, we are delighted with the results. A cost effective way to bring slate floor tiles back to life, we were considering taking them up! Will be interesting to see how long the finish remai s this good.Many thanks for your advice on how to maintain the finish.By Richard S, Upper Hartfield

A professional and thorough service restoring 2 showers at considerably less cost than replacement. Highly recommended.By Paul P, Hove

Mick was quick to reply to queries and happy to arrange the work via my tenant. The work was completed to a high standard and Mick gave suggestions for further improvements to help prevent the mould coming back. Great service thanks.By Nick K, Tauranga, New Zealand

Mick was professional, polite and very informative as to each stage of the job and what it entailed, he is a very tidy worker and the end result was a vast improvement to my 64 year old quarry tiled kitchen fl or. Wouldn’t hesitate in giving a recommendation.By Linda B, Polegate

Mick is friendly and professional and knows TILES! He explained exactly the process involved and answered my many questions about my TILES and how to maintain them. Sadly, my Edwardian pantry/utility room til s are badly worn and were botch repaired in places. However, they have come up a treat and are now definitely red and black instead of a mucky cloudy/grey red and black and they look much better. Mick advised there was a further process to better enhance them but unfortunately the cost was not within my budget. I am very pleased with their overall look and effect. Thank you Mick for a great job.By Ms J, Crowborough

A mishap on a customer’s house left me requiring expertise to remedy a tiled porch floor which had a lot of scuffs and scratches. I initially asked for some advise and was given it with no sales tactics. But f r peace of mind leaving it to the experts, I was happy for the on-call site operative, Mick, to have a look for a call-out charge, and thankfully he managed to sort it out right there and then for a reasonable charge. All sorted within a working day. It looks better than it did before and now my customer is happy and I’m out of trouble.By Tony , Horsham

Prompt service and fitted us into his schedule very quickly. Cleaned some tough cement off old victorian tiles and they now look amazing.By Miriam T, Hove